Local Channels 119 Shutoff?

[Stargazer]

Have all the local channels been taken off of 119? A friend had a phase 3 dish for a long time and just lost the local channels this past week in the Charleston/Huntington WV DMA.


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[lordodogg]

Do you know if he had an INFO channel in his guide about the shutoff? They’ll usually have an Info channel warning customers in advance that they’ll be shut off.
Or do you know if they still show in his guide but with the 771 error when tuned in? If so it’s likely a problem with the internal uplink.

 

[Tom Speer]

The weekly Transponder maps, which show what is in the APG guide data, still show the SD locals for the Charleston/Huntington WV DMA as active on 119. I just ran an extra data collection run, and they are unchanged since Wednesday. It is more likely that he has a Line of sight problem to 119 or a LNB problem. But most of us feel that the remaining SD duplicates of local channels will be going away in the future. A service call to DirecTV is in order.

 

[Jimbo]

The weekly Transponder maps, which show what is in the APG guide data, still show the SD locals for the Charleston/Huntington WV DMA as active on 119. I just ran an extra data collection run, and they are unchanged since Wednesday. It is more likely that he has a Line of sight problem to 119 or a LNB problem. But most of us feel that the remaining SD duplicates of local channels will be going away in the future. A service call to DirecTV is in order.

Tom, did you happen to see what other channels are on the 119 still, maybe he could try one of those to confirm.

 

[KyL416]

Tom, did you happen to see what other channels are on the 119 still, maybe he could try one of those to confirm.

There are no national channels on 119 anymore, the only thing is MPEG-2 SD locals. If you aren't in one of those markets, you don't see any 119 stations in your guide.

 

[Jimbo]

There are no national channels on 119 anymore, the only thing is MPEG-2 SD locals. If you aren't in one of those markets, you don't see any 119 stations in your guide.

OK, good to know ....
It's been awhile since I've been in the files.

 

[Tom Speer]

BREAKING NEWS... TPN 32 on 119, (the transponder that carries SD locals for Charleston and Parkersburg WV., also Lexington KY) is not carrying any PIDS at all right now. The mux stream is all null packets. That is a disconnection somewhere in the communication path to the uplink transmitter in Los Angeles.

I repurposed my TSreader system that normally provides redundant monitoring or 101 TPN 30 for feeding RedH. I tuned it to 119 TPN 32, and it is sending all PID 0000 packets, which are normally idle filler. There is nothing else. TPN 31 is OK.

 

[lordodogg]

I noticed you mentioned Parkersburg, I do not think they have any SD locals on 119. The only SD locals they do have are the MNT local channel 17 and the PBSNET service on channel 65, neither of which are coming from 119.
Edit: they do have one SD coming from 119, but it is just WCHS Charleston since they are still a “short” market that has no ABC affiliate of their own.

 

[Tom Speer]

I noticed you mentioned Parkersburg, I do not think they have any SD locals on 119. The only SD locals they do have are the MNT local channel 17 and the PBSNET service on channel 65, neither of which are coming from 119.
Edit: they do have one SD coming from 119, but it is just WCHS Charleston since they are still a “short” market that has no ABC affiliate of their own.

I took Parkersburg from the National TPNGrid (These are National beams). I'm not going to figure out why that shows up in the grid right now. It's not important.. What is important is this failure explains the OP's concern. Since most people don't watch SD duplicates, DirecTV may not be aware of the failure, without customer complaints.

 

[Stargazer]

The only thing received was the info banner for WOWK CBS 13 for the Nexstar dispute. The channels showed up in the guide. When trying to tune to one of the channels it just comes up blank with no error messages. I tried receiver reset with no change.

Only one transponder on 119 read 0 which I wondered if it was a spotbeam as to why it did not come in. I can go back to check which transponder that was. I told them that the locals may have been shut off of that satellite and that they may need a different dish to pick up the local channels again.


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[lordodogg]

That’s because WOWK and all other Nexstar stations as well as their Mission and White Knight sister stations are mapped to a 101 National beam transponder to display the slate.
Resetting your receiver won’t change anything, this, like Tom said a few posts before, is a problem with the uplink from the Los Angeles Broadcast Center.
That transponder was definitely 119 TP 32. 119 hasn’t had spotbeam transponders for almost 3 years now, it is now solely National transponders.

 

[Tom Speer]

The only thing received was the info banner for WOWK CBS 13 for the Nexstar dispute. The channels showed up in the guide. When trying to tune to one of the channels it just comes up blank with no error messages. I tried receiver reset with no change.

Only one transponder on 119 read 0 which I wondered if it was a spotbeam as to why it did not come in. I can go back to check which transponder that was. I told them that the locals may have been shut off of that satellite and that they may need a different dish to pick up the local channels again.


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There are no spot beams on DirecTV's 119 satellite. D7S which had the spot beam transponders was retired a couple of years ago. Most of the markets that were on 119 had their SD duplicates removed. They reshuffled the remaining markets to the remaining 11 transponders licensed to DirecTV at 119 (TPNs 22 to 32), on National beams coming from the T8 satellite at 119. All of those stations have HD versions on spot beams at 99 and 103. Your friend needs a slimline Dish with a SL3SRB LNB, and replacement receivers (probably free) that can handle the satellites at 99, 100, and 103, HD, and the single wire multiplex LNB. If the only TV is SD, they can accommodate that with downconverting at the receiver.

I can't see the 119 signal strength on my DirecTV receiver, because the LNB has no capability for 119. I can see it on my TSreader monitor system (separate dish), which does not receive the encrypted programs, just data. The signal strength for 119 TPN 32, which is the one in question, is the same as any of the other 119 transponders. It just isn't transmitting any programming. I'm not sure they will fix it. The few SD only customers they have in Charleston Wv and Lexington, KY should call DirecTV and see if they can get a free upgrade.

 

[lordodogg]

Might be off topic, but a similar thing happened with the Ku offline slate last month, where I just got a black screen with no error message when tuning in, and even got 100 signal on 101 TPN 21 before, during, and after the “outage”. I documented it in the TPN Map thread, beginning at post 481.

 

[Tom Speer]

Might be off topic, but a similar thing happened with the Ku offline slate last month, where I just got a black screen with no error message when tuning in, and even got 100 signal on 101 TPN 21 before, during, and after the “outage”. I documented it in the TPN Map thread, beginning at post 481.

That is a bit off topic, because it was an outage of a single stream within the multiplexed transponder signal, not the whole transponder digital content. You were able to tune to it, but it was just a black picture.

 

[Gary Toma]

….
I can't see the 119 signal strength on my DirecTV receiver, because the LNB has no capability for 119.

My signal strength readings are all 96 or 97 for all of the 119 transponders.

 

[lordodogg]

You were able to tune to it, but it was just a black picture.

I hate to dwell over such thing, but if I did get a black picture I would have at least got the split second white flash that I always get before video from the channel I tuned into shows (and I’m sure you’ve seen that on your system too). I did not get that.

 

[Tom Speer]

It is now 25 days since the loss of local SD duplicates was reported here for the Charleston/Huntington WV DMA. 119 TPN 32 continues to show no audio or video PIDS, despite the fact that The SD duplicate channels for Charleston WV and Louisville KY are mapped to that transponder. I doubt they will be back. The channels are all available as Mpeg4 signals on spotbeams from 99s and 103s.

 

[lordodogg]

I wouldn’t be surprised if they just remove the guide entries for those local channels entirely.

 

[slice1900]

It is now 25 days since the loss of local SD duplicates was reported here for the Charleston/Huntington WV DMA. 119 TPN 32 continues to show no audio or video PIDS, despite the fact that The SD duplicate channels for Charleston WV and Louisville KY are mapped to that transponder. I doubt they will be back. The channels are all available as Mpeg4 signals on spotbeams from 99s and 103s.

It sure doesn't look like it was planned though - that would be a weird way of discontinuing that service.

At this point at has been long enough that even if they could fix it, it wouldn't be worth it because anyone depending on those SD channels will have upgraded to HD or whatever.

 

[lordodogg]

it wouldn't be worth it because anyone depending on those SD channels will have upgraded to HD or whatever.

There are also HD customers that have a 119 dish (e.g. SL5, AT9) and can watch both the HD or SD locals. That would be great for a signal loss, but SignalSaver has even made that redundant now unless you don't have a Genie.